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Children are most likely to enjoy family stability when they are born into a married family
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There is an emerging scholarly consensus that family stability in and of itself is linked to positive child outcomes. By contrast, children who are exposed to family transitions — from a divorce to the breakup of a mother's romantic relationship with a live-in boyfriend — are more likely to experience behavioral problems, drug use, problems in school, early sex and loneliness.
Only 13 percent of children born to married parents experience a maternal partnership transition by age 3 compared to 50 percent of cohabiting parents.
Family transitions are thought to harm a mother's ability to interact positively with her child(ren) by affecting her economic, social and psychological resources. They also necessitate the establishment of new routines and relationships that may be difficult for children to navigate.
Only 13 percent of children born to married parents experience a maternal partnership transition by age 3 compared to 50 percent of cohabiting parents.
Family transitions are thought to harm a mother's ability to interact positively with her child(ren) by affecting her economic, social and psychological resources. They also necessitate the establishment of new routines and relationships that may be difficult for children to navigate.
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Lazy and uncommitted people make for lame parents.
...and 30 reasons to enact marriage equality across this nation.
Marriage equality, or in other words same sex marriage, constitutes a complex household.
This isn't very good research - it's not even peer reviewed. The best scholars in family studies agree that family structure makes no difference for children's well being. Sure, it's well established that the married two-biological parent household is strongly correlated with economic advantages, family stability and educational achievement, but most of that correlation is due to selection effects. The people that are most likely to earn a high income are also the ones who are most likely to marry rather than cohabit, etc. Cohabitation and single parenthood are hugely disproportionate among low-education and low-SES groups, so it's really the lack of resources that affects children, not family structure per se. The families with fewest resources are more likely to experience instability in their families. Even relatively conservative scholars like Andrew Cherlin (favors marriage) don't say that family structure causes poorer outcomes for children. This research is completely bogus according to academic standards. If I was a reviewer at one of the top family journals, I'd reject this outright.